Is there really a dark side to yoga?

Is there really a dark side to yoga? Skilbey Blogs

I was having a conversation with someone just over a week ago about energy; the good and bad and the ugly energies floating around in the world and the name Gabriel Amroth came up. Back at base, I Googled him. He is  was the world’s most famous Italian Exorcist, working on behalf of the Vatican. He’s just died at the age of 91 years.

Who is enamoured with the Vatican?  Sexual abuse scandals and its alleged links to the Mafia haven’t filled me with faith (see what I did there?), though he sounds like a reasonable man, as when claiming that the devil is working fast and furious everywhere, he suggested that the devil does indeed, hold a seat in the Vatican too.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/09/17/catholic-churchs-most-prominent-exorcist-enemy-of-yoga-and-harry/     …….
….Yes, he does mention Harry Potter. He thinks the Potter stories lead people into the dark arts. Really? Well, some people glued to watching Strictly Come Dancing on TV subsequently take themselves off to the nearest dance classes. Which inevitably peter out. Would it differ much with children, with the Potter books ?

But the claim that startles me the most in the article is that he is described as an ‘enemy of yoga’.

How on earth could yoga be seen as evil?  Isn’t it a balm to the soul?

Well, I have been through several websites that have informed me on the contrary. The gist of the argument goes like this:

Western society is largely ignorant of the roots and origins of yoga.

To use it just for physical training, expecting the spiritual side of it to be left untouched is a fallacy.

Hindu and Buddhist teaching describe the practicing of yoga as a way of escaping endless reincarnations and karmic debt owed, to arrive at the Hindu idea of heaven (Moksha) while reaching the Buddhist void (Sunyata).

Yoga means union. And Moksha is by most Hindu schools understood to mean the state “which is beyond being”, while Sunyata means “emptiness”. The Bhagavad Gita (Hindu scripture),endorses this.

In the East, it is more openly understood to be a way of dying.

The yoga positions are worshiping positions not to be meddled with as they worship deities or demons while the person is in a vulnerable  detached and empty state, and it is likened to dabbling with an Ouija board.

Kundalini yoga is considered the most dangerous because of the power it claims to awaken.

Swiss occultist Carl Jung, in his book The Collected Works of CG Jung,  termed it, “a deliberately induced psychotic state.”

Then there are many first-hand experiences from people who have experienced ‘the dark side’.

Bare in mind, many claims are from Christian based websites, but not exclusively.

Bare in mind, some- not having a strong religious faith in the first place- claim they had to turn to the bible to exorcise the demons out of themselves. Some claim they are still troubled.

Bare in mind that someone posted a response to an ex-yoga practitioner’s harrowing experience,  providing a link that shows a connection between Selenium deficiency and  Schizophrenia.

I love yoga and have plans to return to it at some stage.

Is this an attempt to exert Christianity as the one true religion?

I may have to lie down and meditate on this.

Would love to hear your views.

 

 

 

 

Many thanks for reading. Your thoughts are always welcomed.

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.